


The Falling of Stars

by earthspirits



Series: Demimonde of Shadows - Stories Set in the World of Penny Dreadful [3]
Category: Penny Dreadful TV, Penny Dreadful fandom
Genre: Angelic Love, Angels, Character Death, Character Turned Into Vampire, Consensual Sex, Consensual lovemaking, Dark Love, Dark Romance, Declarations Of Love, Doctor Sweet - Freeform, Dr Alexander Sweet, Dracula - Freeform, Dubious Consent, Dubious non-con, Ethan - Freeform, Ethan Chandler - Freeform, Ethan Lawrence Talbot, F/M, Fallen Angel, Fallen Angels, Falling In Love, Heartbreak, Heaven, Horror, Implied / Referenced Non-Con, Lilith - Freeform, Love Triangles, Love at First Sight, Lucifer - Freeform, Lupus Dei, Non-Graphic Attempted Rape, Penny Dreadful S3 Spoilers, Reincarnation, Reincarnational love, Romance, Scorpion Queen, Sexual Situations, Soulmates, Star-crossed love, Tainted Love, The Watchers - Freeform, True Love, Unrequited Love, Vampires, Vanessa - Freeform, Vanessa Ives - Freeform, Werewolf, Wolf Man, Wolf of God, alexander sweet - Freeform, angel - Freeform, dark lover, heavenly love, soul mates, star-crossed lovers, the fallen - Freeform, vampire, vampiric love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 08:54:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7354270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earthspirits/pseuds/earthspirits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dracula remembers his first encounter with the souls that would eventually incarnate as Vanessa Ives and Ethan Chandler.</p><p>Written because I desired a more detailed backstory for Dracula and his motivations. Just why is he so drawn to Vanessa?  I also wanted to go more in-depth for Ethan and Vanessa, and their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Falling of Stars

**Author's Note:**

> _SPOILERS:_ Contains S3 spoilers.
> 
>  _RATING / WARNINGS:_ MATURE! This is a story of darkness and redemption, intended for mature adult audiences only. There is a brief scene of violence and death. Another short scene depicts lovemaking between soulmates. Between Dracula and Vanessa, there's dubious consent, as well as an attempted rape in an earlier incarnation of the pair, although it is all written very subtly, without graphic details. Despite this, may possibly be triggering for some.

How could this have happened?

Once again, she had slipped from his grasp - and once again, he had the Wolf of God to thank for it.

Dracula's tall sinewy form stiffened with dread. He had known instantly when Vanessa died. It would be only a matter of moments before the Wolf appeared, and went ravaging after him. And with his queen gone, the vampire lord's powers were severely diminished. All he could do was flee, his eyes weeping blood, as he disappeared in a swirl of leathern wings.

It was not fair. She was _his_ \- had always been his. To him, their love had been fated - even as they fell together from Paradise. It was so long ago, there was no longer a name for that far distant time. He had been enthralled from the very first moment he had beheld her, in that first life they had shared before the Fall, when they had all basked in the pure light of Heaven. Her name then had been Lilith - she had been one of the Lord's youngest angels, only just created on the eve of the great rebellion. Brilliant and curious, but still naive in her freshness of creation, Lilith had viewed all of the other angels as companions to trust. She did not realize that some of them brooded on darkness. In that distant epoch, she had shared the sparkling joy of her soul freely, unafraid of anything. How perfect, how preternaturally beautiful she had been, playful and sweetly sensuous, but with a deep well of power. No one could compare with her. Even now, she was still beautiful as Vanessa Ives - but in Dracula's opinion, her mere human beauty paled besides that which she had once processed, when she had walked the crystal halls of Heaven, her spirit new and shining.

As Lilith, she had loved him in those lost golden days, but Dracula had thought her fickle, as she was a free spirit, happily sharing her affections with others. Besides the gloomy Dracula, her suitors included his older brother, Lucifer - the glittering Angel of Light (and even then, insufferable in his overweening pride) - and his younger brother, the towering warrior angel who was chief lieutenant to the Archangel Michael. He was known as the Wolf of God. In his current incarnation, he was an American gunslinger named Ethan Chandler - a man cursed at each full moon to physically manifest his fierce inner nature in the form of a werewolf.

Dracula recalled how Lilith had laughed and flirted with him and his brothers, making a lovely game of it, as she pondered which angelic suitor to choose. She had little use for the arrogant Lucifer, and while fond of Dracula, always seemed to prefer the Wolf. It was only too obvious that he was the one she truly loved. Dracula, consumed with anger and intense jealousy, had been easy prey for the scheming of Lucifer, and so it was that he had joined his older brother in rebellion. When Heaven finally fell, he would destroy the Wolf, and take the glorious Lilith for his own.

Briefly, Dracula's mind slid from thoughts of the distant past to his current state of defeat. The deadly fog had dispersed, and the accursed sun had come out again, sending his legion of the damned and other night creatures scuttling back to the sewers and hidden places. As the vampire lord reached the sanctuary of the natural history museum, he reverted to his human form, shaking with barely repressed fury as he recalled Vanessa's everlasting preference for his youngest brother, who in this incarnation, was unaware of his connection to Dracula. How the vampire hated him!

After their defeat in the war against Heaven, Dracula - along with Lucifer and the other rebels - were bound with chains of light, and taken to the marbled gates to await judgement. During the lengthy trial, Lilith had stood nearby, aligned with those who had stayed true to the Creator, her face filled with sorrow as she watched each rebellious angel judged and doomed to exile. Beside her was the Wolf, his handsome features impassive, one muscular hand on the hilt of his sword. As Dracula was dragged forward, to be thrust from the gleaming steps of Heaven by Michael himself, he glanced up and stared directly into the sapphire eyes of Lilith. As he started to fall, he roared in anguish, shattering his chains with a burst of frenzied psychic energy, and lunged at Lilith, ripping her from the side of his younger brother.

Lilith screamed as they fell into the vast depths of the universe, their angelic bodies wrapped so tightly around the other that Dracula could not tell the beating of his heart from hers. Savagely, he attempted to thrust into her. With a feral snarl, she pivoted her hips away from him, at the same time managing to free one of her pinioned hands. Still snarling, Lilith raked his face with her long nails, drawing blood, and a cry of pain from her captor. White hot, their wings burned, turning to enormous plumes of flame and smoke that trailed the sky like a comet, as they sped towards the faint blue and white world beneath them. The new planet of Creation - Earth. The flames of their wings were heavy with the scent of spices - the reek of incense and burnt offerings in some ancient temple to come. With Lilith struggling violently against him, and screaming her wrath, they spun against the darkness of the universe, the only light the shine from distant stars, and their own burning.

Grimly, Dracula recalled how she had once again twisted in his arms, and with a powerful push, had flung herself away from him into the void, heading towards another who was rapidly approaching. The Wolf had followed them as they fell, loyally determined to rescue Lilith from his brother. But in so doing, he had sealed his own fate. Once the fall from Heaven had started - even for those who had not rebelled - it could not be halted.

The being that would eventually become Vanessa Ives, tears of light streaking her face, had turned to her beloved Wolf, crying his name, and wrapping herself tightly around his strong body and great beating wings. And so it was with the Wolf - her true soulmate - that she tenderly made love as they spiraled towards Earth. When they crashed into one of the great oceans, still joined together in mutual passion and adoration, the two had coalesced in a shower of blinding light, their souls ripped from their disintegrating angelic forms, to be instantly caught in the cycle of rebirth that gripped the new beings known as humanity.

As the other fallen reached this new world, most - like Lucifer - had instantly transformed into spirit. But Dracula's fate was different. Simmering with rage and jealousy, his angelic body had condensed to the flesh of Earth - still essentially immortal, and now possessing the ability to shape-shift, and with power over the elements and creatures of the night. Soon he learned that this transformed body required sustenance - needing to feed on blood and worship. As the centuries passed, Dracula went by many names and many guises. It had been easy in those heady days to proclaim himself a god, and weld absolute power over the humans that infested the planet. The only thorns in his side during this time had been Lucifer and the other fallen - and those mortals they had tainted. As the vampire lord spun his webs of chaos and corruption, he'd occasionally encounter interference from angels who had not fallen in the rebellion. Where his brother the Wolf had disappeared to - along with Lilith - had remained a mystery, until Dracula once again found them - reborn in the desert land of Kemet.

Using guile and deceit, the vampire lord had possessed her in that ancient time, damning her to become "The Mother of Evil", and for awhile the world had descended to darkness and plague. But ultimately, he had failed to archive his goal of total destruction. She who had been Lilith was rescued by the Wolf, her eternal lover and protector - and Dracula's kingdom of the night had ended in ignominious defeat. The memory was too fresh, too painful to him, even now, after three thousand years. Sighing, Dracula ran a shaking hand through his dark hair, and sagged against the glass case that held the display of poisonous things - the spiders and the scorpions. Oh, Vanessa, my lovely scorpion queen - why, why, do you always in the end elude me?

****

Dracula and Lucifer had been competing for Lilith's soul for centuries, sometimes with brief success, but eventually always failing to keep her in thrall. It certainly didn't help matters, the vampire thought sullenly, that in each incarnation, the Wolf was ever near, unceasing in his vigilance and devotion.

In this bustling era of Victoria and empire, they discovered she had incarnated again - this time as Vanessa Ives. The brothers were delighted, and took turns attempting to corrupt her. But it had been Dracula, masquerading as the caring Doctor Alexander Sweet, who had finally succeeded. The vampire recalled how his power had swelled as he'd taken her on the floor of the museum. The memory of his ancient angelic love had struggled with his lust and overwhelming need for control. Afterwards, he had silently laughed in triumph, as Vanessa had cuddled with him, her cheeks wet with tears, her expression tender. As her eyes caressed him, Dracula suddenly wished he could just be a human man - the man she thought he was, her kindly and handsome Doctor Sweet - and live a normal life with her, one based on love and trust. Would it even be possible for him - an immortal damned to darkness - to turn his back on his own evil, and claim a purer sort of love? But that temptation had quickly passed, and he was soon plotting to complete his domination of his lover and the world.

To Dracula's unending wrath, the Wolf had once again destroyed his latest scheme of conquest. This time around - as Ethan Chandler - he had saved the world by saving Vanessa's soul.

Months before, in her bedroom at Sir Malcolm's townhouse, the woman Ethan loved above all others had begged him to shoot her, and end her torment. He had saved her then by driving the darkness from her soul with an exorcism. But now - in this candlelit chamber of an abandoned slaughterhouse, she again pleaded with him to release her with death, so that the chain of evil could be broken. He had refused once - but this time, with so much at stake, and so many innocent lives already lost, he bitterly realized there was no longer a choice.

Ethan started to pray aloud, and Vanessa soon joined him, their voices weaving together a spell of love and redemption. For a long moment, he just stared at her, as if trying to burn the image of her face upon his memory. His dark brown eyes wet with tears, he bent his head, and kissed her for the last time. Raising his Colt, he pressed its cold steel against her slender body. A shot rang out, and there was the acrid smell of gun powder. Vanessa slumped back in his arms, blood streaming from her wound. She gazed up at him, her eyes the deep blue of Heaven, and with a radiant smile, her soul fled home. Ethan held his beloved's lifeless body close to his, and then, his features twisted with grief, carried her from the chamber that had become her tomb. Outside in the darkened streets, the sun rose, and as its golden light sliced through the deadly mist, it thinned, finally disappearing, as if it had never been.

In his museum lair, staring blankly at the displays of stuffed creatures and deadly scorpions, Dracula made plans for escape. It was vital that he find other accommodations, as it wouldn't be long before Ethan and his lethal band of friends came for him. And this time, in his weakened state, it was likely they would finally destroy him, once and for all. The tears had dried on his cheeks - tracks of blood, ensnaring him, cursing him, with his perpetual longing for she who had, once again, spurned him. When he was safely ensconced in a new bolt-hole, he would consider his next move. For one day, perhaps soon, as a vampire reckoned things, Vanessa would return - and when she did, he'd be waiting.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Disclaimer:_ Obviously Penny Dreadful, and its characters, as well as the characters of classic horror literature and film, belong to their respective creators / writers / networks, etc. I'm just a devoted fan playing in their sandbox, and make no profit, etc.
> 
> In ancient Jewish lore, Lilith was Adam's first wife. She was cursed to be a female night demon who preyed on children and sleeping men because she refused to submit to Adam. In my story, Lilith is a fallen angel, and Vanessa Ives' first incarnation.
> 
> Kemet is the name the Ancient Egyptians gave to their land.


End file.
